Christ-centered thoughts and studies

Devotional: ‘How to Deal With Trouble’

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1)

Often we have very little control over the occurrence of events that might cause us to be troubled. Job said, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1) In other words, life is full of difficulty. But though we cannot control whether or not many of these events will happen, we can control how we will react to them. Jesus knew that His disciples were about to enter a time of great trouble, yet He reassured them by saying – “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Instead, trust in Me.”

This particular verb translated as ‘trouble’ can be defined as- {to agitate, to take away calmness of mind, to disturb, to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread.} Humanly speaking, the disciples had good reason to be troubled. Only moments earlier Jesus had told them that He would soon be leaving them and they would not be able to follow Him to where He was going. (see John 13:31-38) In addition, throughout His earthly ministry Jesus often told them that He would suffer under the hands of the chief priests and scribes, and eventually He would be killed. (see Mark 10:33) Therefore, we can understand why the disciples might be troubled. Yet Jesus said to them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in Me.” In other words, “Do not let what you are about to experience cause you to become agitated and disturbed.” Instead, choose to put your faith in God and in Me.

What is faith? Faith is more than “I think”, or “I wish”, or “I hope.” Faith is “I am convinced and therefore I am confident.” Perhaps the Apostle Paul expressed it best what it means to have faith in God –

“I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him…” (see 2 Timothy 1:12)

True faith is being convinced that God is good and that He is in control.

Often we have very little control over the events in life that we call trouble. But according to Jesus, we can have control over how we respond to them. Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled over your trouble, but instead, trust Me.”